When I arrived in Uganda earlier this year, to visit refugees fleeing the brutality of the spiraling South Sudanese civil war, I expected to find something familiar: sprawling tent cities, bordered by fencing, clogged with tens of thousands of refugees, isolated from local communities, police regulating traffic in and out. In most camps I’ve visited, refugees don’t have freedom of movement, let alone a plot of land, or reasonable prospects for self-sufficiency. Lives are spent in limbo, weighed down by the crushing boredom of camp life.

Yet there are no camps in Uganda. Instead, refugees settle in villages, living on land allocated to them by the local government within days of crossing the border. They move about without restriction. They are free to cultivate the land, access healthcare and schools, find employment, and start businesses.

Last September, all 193 UN member states signed a commitment to include refugees in local systems and to share responsibility for refugees. Uganda is holding true to the spirit of the New York Declaration. Uganda is trailblazing.

The country’s startlingly compassionate and progressive refugee policy struck me as all the more remarkable considering nearly 7 million Ugandans live in absolute poverty and another 14.7 million are at risk of falling back into poverty. And yet, Uganda has not only kept its borders open, it has welcomed refugees with open arms and open hearts.

"Uganda has not only kept its borders open, it has welcomed refugees with open arms and open hearts."

To be sure, there is an element of reciprocity inherent to this policy. Ugandans have not forgotten their own days as refugees. I sat under a tree with Yahaya, a 51-year-old Ugandan farmer who has donated a plot of land to the family of a South Sudanese refugee named Mike. Yahaya remembers when his own family fled to Sudan in the 1980s, and how warmly Mike’s father received and helped them. Now, more than thirty years later, Yahaya is returning the favor.

“I understand his situation. He is like a brother to me,” Yahaya says of Mike.

Uganda’s approach is also a smart vision for how to support refugees in a sustainable way. It doesn’t view refugees through a purely humanitarian lens. It treats them as empowered agents of growth and development that can benefit both refugee and local communities.

Yahaya told me, for instance, that before the refugee influx his youngest three children were missing out on an education because the nearest school was too many miles away. Now they attend a primary school built in the Bidibidi refugee settlement, home to some 272,000 refugees.

“I think of the millionth refugee arriving at the border."

In a global climate of growing negativity toward refugees, we have a lot to learn from the Ugandan experience and to be inspired by, as individuals, as communities, as countries. But Uganda’s inspirational model is being severely challenged.

This week, the UN Refugee Agency has reported sobering news. The number of South Sudanese refugees that have crossed the border into Uganda since war broke out has reached a depressing milestone – one million. The wellbeing of those one million individuals – most of whom are women and children – hinges on funding that, unfortunately, has failed to keep pace with the growing scale of this crisis.

In June, a Solidarity Summit was held in Entebbe. Uganda showcased its forward looking refugee policy in an effort to inspire other nations to adopt a similar approach and to ask wealthier nations to give funds as part of that commitment to burden sharing made in New York last September. The pledges made fall far short of what is needed just to cover the emergency response in Uganda. Uganda’s ability to realise a model that allows refugees, and its own people, to thrive is now surely in jeopardy.

I think of the millionth refugee arriving at the border: exhausted, bewildered, in shock. Statistically it will most likely be a child. A child who has lost everything. I don’t believe that any of us want to turn our back on that child. I hope the world takes notice.

Baby Aya lies peacefully in an incubator at Qarantina public hospital in the Lebanese capital, Beirut. Born a refugee to Syrian parents, her first few days have not been easy, but the family is thankful that she was able to receive the treatment she needed.

“My daughter Aya was born with jaundice,” her father Mohammed, originally from Idlib in northwest Syria, explained. “She was here [in the hospital] for two days and they took great care of her. She has improved so we are taking her home.”

Aya’s specialist treatment was made possible thanks to a newly constructed paediatric ward at the hospital funded by Lebanese NGO Birth and Beyond. Their aim is to provide quality neonatal treatment to underprivileged families in Lebanon, including Syrian refugees.

Lebanon is home to more than a million refugees from the six-year conflict in neighbouring Syria. Around 12 per cent of children born to refugees are in need of neonatal intensive care. A leading reason for this is prematurity, which in turn can be the result of early marriage, poverty and lack of antenatal care.

Unfortunately, neonatal intensive care is not available in all Lebanese hospitals and refugees often need to travel long distances in order for their newborns to get the necessary treatment.

Robert Sacy, a paediatrician who founded Birth and Beyond, started the initiative to address the dual challenge of an insufficient number of paediatric intensive care places – especially in public hospitals – and the prohibitive cost of such treatment for underprivileged families.

"This is a massive benefit to refugees that they can receive quality care free of charge.”

“We always have this challenge of refusing people not only due to the lack of places, but mainly because of the lack of financial support,” Sacy explained. “There’s a need to have the best treatments with the best medical staff and best equipment in governmental hospitals.”

Last year around 4,500 refugee babies required neonatal intensive care, according to Michael Woodman, a senior public health officer for UNHCR in Lebanon. Despite the fact that the UN Refugee Agency covers 90 per cent of the cost, families still have to cover the remaining 10 per cent, which – no matter how small – can be prohibitive for many refugee families.

“Initiatives like Birth and Beyond are extremely important because they provide excellent quality care for refugees integrated in a public hospital,” Woodman said. “I think this is a massive benefit to refugees that they can receive quality care free of charge.”

Underprivileged children are all received with the same warmth and care, regardless of their nationality. Manal is from Tripoli, in northern Lebanon, and her infant son Oussama was admitted to the new paediatric intensive care unit at Qarantina hospital after suffering complications following heart surgery.

“The ward is excellent even in terms of equipment and machinery, I didn’t feel like I was in a public hospital at all,” said Manal. “The hospital is not going to cost me much. I can’t afford taking him to a private hospital, but here the government pays and so it’s better.”

Thanks to Birth and Beyond, Oussama and Aya have been given a second chance in life, and Sacy argues that the same level of care should be granted to every child born in Lebanon, regardless of their family’s financial situation. “I don’t understand why poor people should not have the right to be treated the same way as rich people.”

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http://www.unhcr.org/5988737a4.htmlSouth Sudanese refugees in Uganda now exceed 1 millionOne million South Sudanese refugees have sought safety in Uganda since last July. Over 85 per cent are women and children.

Under a sunny sky, 14-year-old Tabu Sunday is clearing weeds from a small garden, in the Imvepi refugee settlement in northern Uganda. Tabu is proud of the work she is doing around the house, even though it is not hers.

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has chosen Tabu as the symbolic 1 millionth South Sudanese refugee seeking safety in Uganda since last July, when an unprecedented surge of refugee arrivals began.

The plot belongs to her foster mother, Harriet, who is also from South Sudan. Harriet noticed her own four children playing with Tabu, her twin sister Rena and 11-year-old brother Emmanuel, who appeared to have no-one to care for them, and took them under her wing.

Tabu and her siblings had fled fighting in their home town of Yei with their aunt. Her parents sent them to Uganda so that the girls could continue to go to school.

“Where I was living they were killing people,” she said. “My parents said they didn't have enough money for travelling. So we had to walk on foot with my aunt.

“It was a long and hard journey. We had to use the Congo route to reach Uganda. My aunt stayed for a week and decided to return home.

“After she left, we were playing with our foster parents’ children and their mother saw we were alone. She requested that we stay with her, here in her home."

Home for Tabu is a 30-metre-square plot of land, which is given to all refugee families when they arrive. Tabu and her siblings lives in a separate building from their foster family, which gives the youngsters privacy to sleep, read and study.

In a statement, UNHCR, notes that an average of more than 1,800 South Sudanese refugees a day have fled to Uganda in the past year. The influx has become the fastest growing refugee crisis in the world. More than 85 per cent of South Sudanese refugees in Uganda are women and children under the age of 18.

However, it said that despite, hosting a Solidarity Summit in June, the agency had received just 21 per cent of the US$674 million needed to support the South Sudanese refugees in Uganda for 2017.

In addition to the million refugees now hosted by Uganda, a million or even more South Sudanese refugees are being hosted by Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Central African Republic.

“With the crisis currently showing no end in sight, decisive action is required and there is an urgent need for pledges of support to be fulfilled,” the statement added.

Uganda deserves praise for maintaining open borders to refugees and for its progressive approach to asylum.

“With the crisis currently showing no end in sight, decisive action is required."

It provides refugees with land on which to build a shelter and grow crops, gives them freedom of movement and the right to work, and grants them access to public services such as health care and education.

Tall, slim and energetic, Tabu likes to help her foster mother by weeding their small vegetable garden, washing clothes and cooking dishes of millet and beans.

She is a dedicated student and wants to stay in Uganda so she can carry on attending school. “I'm in primary five and my favourite subjects are religious education and mathematics,” she says.

However, she finds it a struggle with more than 200 students in her class. "When the teacher is teaching others are making noise and we don't get what they are teaching.”

Despite the challenges, Tabu is determined to learn and spends much of her free time doing homework. She and her siblings believe a good education will help them achieve their dreams. Tabu’s sister, Rena, hopes to become a mayor and their brother, Emmanuel, wants to be a pilot.

Tabu has her sights set on medicine. "I want to be a doctor because when someone falls sick, or a woman needs to deliver a baby, I can help."

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http://www.unhcr.org/59915f604.htmlFreed Yazidi boy joins his mother in CanadaAfter being held captive by armed groups in Iraq for three years, 13-year-old Emad reunites with his mother in Winnipeg with UNHCR help.

Emad was kidnapped three years ago when armed groups attacked the town of Sinjar, 100 kilometres west of Iraq’s second city Mosul, and targeted the area’s minority Yazidi faith.

He was held captive and separated from his family, who had no idea that he was still alive. In July as the battle to retake Mosul raged, Emad was found beneath the rubble of the old city.

He was covered in dust and his small, emaciated body was wracked with injuries from shrapnel, bullets and bombs. He had only tiny morsels of food to eat in the two months before he was found, as Iraqi forces closed in on the old city in the west of Mosul.

The youngster was attempting to get a drink of water near one of the bridges that span the Tigris River, which bisects the city, when he was struck by a bullet. It was the last thing he remembers, and the culmination of his terrifying ordeal

“Emad suffered a great deal ... but thank God he is okay.”

He was subsequently reunited with his uncle, Hadi Tammo, 31, in this city in northwest Iraq. “Even though he’s injured, we’re very happy,” Tammo said.

One month after his escape, Emad’s wounds had been bandaged and he had been given a haircut. But he continued to wear a sad, tired expression not normally seen on children of his age. His wounded stomach, elbow and head continued to cause him pain.

“Emad suffered a great deal and his family were also captured,” said Hadi, whose children and wife were kidnapped by the extremists, before managing to escape from their ordeal last year. “He’s not feeling well, but thank God he is okay.”

The Yazidi community in Sinjar, northwestern Iraq, was targeted by extremists in 2014. Militants separated men and boys older than 12 years old from the rest of their families, and killed those who refused to adopt their beliefs.

More than 6,000 women and girls were kidnapped and sold as slaves, among them many of Emad’s relatives. Thousands of Yazidis were massacred or died of dehydration and exhaustion as they tried to escape the onslaught.

The UN has deemed their ordeal an ongoing genocide that amounts to crimes against humanity and war crimes.

After the attack, the life of Emad’s family, and the lives of many other families like theirs, changed forever.

Emad’s mother managed to escape captivity in 2016, and earlier this year she was relocated to the Canadian city of Winnipeg with the help of UNHCR. When Emad was rescued in July, UNHCR connected the names of mother and child and realized who he was, said UNHCR resettlement specialist Sarah Webster.

The boy made his way to Canada on August 16, along with a UN minder and another Yazidi family who were also being relocated there. While in Dohuk, UNHCR arranged a meeting between Emad and the other family so that he would have some familiar faces on the flight.

“It was of utmost importance to us to get Emad back to his mother and siblings as soon as possible.”

“Family unity is one of the most important principles for UNHCR. The family provides a really important support network for people who have been through what Emad has been through,” Webster said, a few days before Emad's departure. “It was of utmost importance to us to get Emad back to his mother and siblings as soon as possible.”

The youngster was so excited by the prospect of being reunited with his mom that he had his bags packed days in advance.

“He can’t wait to see his mother again after three horrific years apart,” said his uncle Hadi. “When Emad first talked to his mother they were both very happy. It was like Emad was waking up from a grave. He was almost dead. He had been injured in his belly. But for his mom, she was just very happy. It was like Emad was reborn."

Following his ordeal, Emad could hardly communicate when he met his relatives again because his captors had forced him to speak Arabic and not his native Kurdish. “We want him to go to school so his mind will be clear and then he can move forward with a new life,” said Hadi.

Once he is settled in Canada he will be assessed and will receive specialized care which is limited or unavailable in Iraq.

“Children who were held in captivity for long periods of time have been subject to a range of things, such as forced labour, forced conversion, physical and psychological abuse, on top of that separation from their family members,” said Webster.

“Our first priority is to reunite them with their family members so that they can at least relieve this stress and separation, and then we start to focus on recovery and access to specialized services, like Emad will have in Canada.”

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http://www.unhcr.org/599314ff4.htmlMore urgency needed in quest for South Sudan peace – UN Refugee ChiefDuring a visit to Sudan, Filippo Grandi calls on warring parties, regional states and the international community to do more to end the conflict which has uprooted nearly four million people.

AL-NAMIR, East Darfur, Sudan – As worsening violence in South Sudan drives ever more men, women and children to run for their lives, the UN Refugee Chief is calling on warring parties, regional states and the international community to look for urgent ways to find peace.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi made the call during a visit to Al-Nimir refugee camp in East Darfur, Sudan, where he met South Sudanese refugees and their local hosts.

“My coming here has one reason – just as I did in Uganda, Ethiopia and from Juba itself, to appeal to the leadership of South Sudan, to the opposition of South Sudan, to the States in the region and to the international community at large, to inject some sense of urgency in the quest of peace in South Sudan itself,” Grandi said during the visit this week.

His call comes as conflict and drought have displaced nearly four million South Sudanese both inside the country and beyond its borders since violence erupted there in 2013. Efforts to restore peace have so far proven unsuccessful.

“The victims of this failure, so far, are the civilians. The civilians that we see around here."

“The victims of this failure, so far, are the civilians. The civilians that we see around here. People that have left everything behind. Often women and children, without their men, to embark on an uncertain life because they are too afraid to stay back home in their villages which are affected by war,” Grandi said.

During his visit to Sudan, the UN Refugee Chief also highlighted the country's key role in hosting hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese refugees. Al-Nimir camp hosts more than 5,000 refugees – over 90 per cent of them women and children.

“I want to say to the world that Sudan is keeping its doors open at a time when so many countries are closing doors,” Grandi said,

The High Commissioner also appealed for more help for Sudan. “Often, we forget that Sudan continues to be a very key host country not just for South Sudanese but for Eritreans, Syrians and many other refugees,” he said.

Grandi praised the model of cooperation and coexistence between refugees and the local communities in Sudan.

“Throughout the world, we are experimenting with new ways to promote livelihoods, to promote new sources of energy and other forms of sustainable development for refugees and for the communities hosting them. I think that Sudan qualifies very much for this model of development.”

During his visit to the camp, Grandi met Sadia Mohammed Wali, a 42 year-old refugee mother. Sadia fled South Sudan with her seven children when fighting erupted in her home town back in June this year.

"We came with our children and we had nothing to feed them."

“We were very scared,” she said giving details of her month-long trip to reach safety in Sudan. “The journey was so difficult for us, because we came with our children and we had nothing to feed them. We were moving in huge groups,” she said. “Those who carried some small foods would share and we gave them to the children.”

She expressed her desire for her children to get a good education and get some help herself to support her small business, selling roasted peanuts, dumplings and sweets.

Sudan hosts some 416,000 refugees from South Sudan since 2013 – including some 170,000 new arrivals so far this year.

South Sudan became the world’s youngest country when it gained independence from Sudan in 2011..

Hundreds of thousands of other refugees – who stayed in Sudan following the partition are also in need of humanitarian assistance.

On Wednesday, the UN Refugee Chief concluded his visit by meeting with Sudan’s leaders and authorities in Khartoum.

RAMADI/FALLUJA, Iraq – Ibrahim Khalil points to the half-destroyed building that used to be his family’s home in the Al Aramil neighbourhood of Ramadi, 110 kilometres west of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. “Our house was full of life; we were very proud of it and wanted for nothing,” he says.

The 25-year-old labourer and crane driver fled Ramadi three years ago with his wife, mother and sisters when extremist groups arrived in the city. They left in haste – so rushed that they even left documents and some savings behind in their home.

The family spent the next two years living in a displacement camp in Bzeibiz, but when the government retook control of the city in early 2016, Ibrahim cautiously ventured back to assess the damage.

“All this area had been booby-trapped, and we had to pay bomb removal teams to clear our street. They found 13 explosive devices in this place alone,” he says gesturing to his home, which had half its side knocked out by explosions from similar booby-traps left in a now-ruined neighbour’s house.

“All the furniture had been taken, the money, documents – nothing was left,” he explains. One large room remains completely demolished, and part of the roof is open to the sky.

“All this area had been booby-trapped, and we had to pay bomb removal teams to clear our street."

Ramadi suffered extensive damage during months of fighting to retake the city, and even now – a year and half after the battle ended – much of the city still lies in ruins. Despite the devastation, 62,000 displaced families – equivalent to some 370,000 individuals – have returned to begin the task of rebuilding their lives.

Residents report that there has been little outside support for reconstruction efforts, with many families taking on significant debts in order to start rebuilding their homes.

UNHCR – the UN Refugee Agency – together with its NGO partners, has helped more than 500 families in Ramadi like Ibrahim’s with shelter repairs to a maximum value of US$5,000. Another 150 families whose homes were totally destroyed or uninhabitable have been given sturdy Refugee Housing Units as temporary shelters.

In Ibrahim’s case, the assistance from UNHCR has enabled him to re-plaster two rooms, replace broken windows and doors, and re-wire the electricity. But much remains to be done. “Lack of money is the main difficulty we face,” he explains. “I want to finish all repairs to the house. My son is just two-and-a-half, and I hope he won’t have to experience all the problems and difficulties we’ve been through.”

There is a similar picture in Falluja, some 50 kilometres east of Ramadi on the road to the Iraqi capital. Some 400,000 residents who were displaced by fighting to retake the city from armed groups have returned since the military operation ended just over a year ago.

While the destruction to the city as a whole was less severe than in Ramadi, many homes were left partially destroyed, looted or fire-damaged. On his return to the city seven months ago, former taxi-driver and father-of-six Ammar Sajit Mutlaq, 40, found his home still standing, but was devastated to find that the building had been set on fire.

"More help is urgently needed to help them rebuild their homes and lives and have confidence in the future.”

“This was a newly built house; everything was brand new and we lost it all,” he says. Even today, a faint smell of smoke still lingers inside, and the interior walls and roof remain blackened by the fire. “We were devastated. We were so proud of our home,” Ammar’s wife Bahiya adds.

UNHCR has helped Ammar and 600 other families in the city with shelter repairs, while a further 443 have received temporary housing units. “We are so grateful for the help we’ve received,” says Ammar, pointing to the re-plastered walls, new windows and repaired roof. “We could never afford to do this ourselves.”

Some of the residents of Ramadi and Falluja said their experiences contained lessons for those displaced during the battle for Mosul, who are now returning home. In Ramadi, which suffered similar levels of damage to Mosul, Ibrahim gave this advice: “Be patient. It won’t be easy. But try to stand on your own two feet. Things will be difficult, but everything that has begun must have an end.”

“Iraq still faces enormous challenges due to the massive internal displacement crisis and the huge scale of work needed to rebuild and reconstruct areas where major conflict took place,” said UNHCR Iraq Representative Bruno Geddo.

“While we focus on Mosul, we should not forget the struggles also facing people returning to their original areas in Falluja and Ramadi. More help is urgently needed to help them rebuild their homes and lives and have confidence in the future.”

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http://www.unhcr.org/599414154.htmlDivided by conflict line, Ukrainian families struggleAs the devastating conflict in Ukraine enters its fourth year, crossing points between areas in the east of the country are tearing families apart.

Valentina, 70, can barely walk with a stick. Her husband Gennadiy grasps her hand tightly to help, but he too has difficulties walking. Together, like thousands of other Ukrainians, they must cross a de facto border in the east of the country just to visit family, receive social payments and seek medical treatment.

Surrounded by minefields, crossing points are the only way to travel back and forth between conflict-torn areas in Eastern Ukraine. For many Ukrainians, this dangerous yet inevitable route is a part of their regular travel routine.

To get through a checkpoint, Valentina and Gennadiy must walk about 600 metres on foot from a bus stop and then wait in line for the necessary documents, before taking two buses to get to the checkpoint on the other side. A journey like this can be hard for anyone – but for vulnerable people with limited mobility it is excruciating. “This is inhuman,” says Valentina, wiping away her tears.

“We did not choose to live like this."

The Ukrainian authorities have registered more than 6 million crossings of the contact line since the start of 2017, already fast approaching the overall 8.5 million crossings from 2016. One of the reasons for this increased mobility is the verification procedure for social payments that was introduced by the Ukrainian government. For many vulnerable people in non-government controlled territories these payments are vital for survival, leaving them with no choice but to travel back and forth.

“We did not choose to live like this,” says Viktoria*, who takes her four-year-old daughter, Katya*, across the dividing line once every two months to visit her sick grandfather. While Katya waits for a bus with her mother, the sound of gunfire echoes around the area, as fighting continues.

“This is inhuman."

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is concerned about difficulties regarding freedom of movement of civilians, particularly while crossing the conflict line.

With the support of the European Commission's Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO) and other international donors, UNHCR is providing technical support and equipment to improve conditions at crossing points. Computers and furniture have been supplied to the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine in order to speed up processing of documents and there are plans to install new heated tents and shade covers for pedestrians moving across the line.

Since 2015 and the signing of the Minsk Agreement, the conflict in Eastern Ukraine has disappeared from headlines, with a decrease in gunfire often seen as a sign that the situation has stabilized. However, explosions and bombings continue, along with damaged infrastructure and a lack of security that exposes people to life-threating dangers. And, with many families torn apart by the contact line, hope is in short supply.

“We do not deserve this after all the years that we contributed working for this country,” says Valentina.

* Names have been changed for protection reasons.

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http://www.unhcr.org/598825024.htmlHope amid the ruins as displaced Iraqis return to West MosulWhile the battle for control of Iraq's second city has been declared over, the task of rebuilding the city the lives of its inhabitants is just beginning.

MOSUL, Iraq – Um Ahmed and 16 members of her family live crammed in their blast-damaged two-storey home in the Al-Resala neighbourhood of West Mosul. Despite the destruction, she says she feels lucky that their house is still standing when others nearby have been flattened.

Back in March, when the battle for control of Iraq’s second city raged around them, 35-year-old Um Ahmed and her family spent ten terrifying days huddled in their basement shelter with 40 other people. The dark, damp room had only one tiny window for ventilation, and was rank with the smell of closely packed bodies and fear, she recalls.

During a lull in the fighting, she fled with her husband Shehab, 42, and their children to a government-run displacement camp in Jadaa, some 50 kilometers south of the city. Hours later, a rocket struck their cherished home.

The hot and dusty camp environment was particularly hard on Shehab, who suffers from a heart condition and epilepsy. On July 10, the day after the Iraqi government declared the battle for the city over, the family returned to their home to assess the damage after four months in the camp.

“We returned to Mosul because it was difficult for my husband to stay in a tent with his poor health.”

“We returned to Mosul because it was difficult for my husband to stay in a tent with his poor health,” Um Ahmed explains. “We were also afraid of losing our house.”

On their return they were greeted with a scene of utter destruction, with the entire front of the house lying in ruins. But after clearing their way inside they found that, unlike many of their neighbours, their furniture and possessions were still there – the rubble having prevented looters from gaining entry. “Something bad turns into something good,” Shehab says with a wry smile.

While happy to be home, life remains tough for the family, with each day a struggle to provide the basics for survival. Electricity is costly and usually available for just eight hours a day, drinking water is delivered by truck and stored in tanks, while water for toilets and washing is collected from a well in a large barrel which they have to roll home. Um Ahmed and her sister make dresses at home to earn enough money to scrape by.

So far some 79,000 people have returned to the ruins of West Mosul, according to government figures, equivalent to around 10 per cent of all those who fled the area. By contrast, some 90 per cent of those who fled have since returned to the east of the city, which witnessed considerably less destruction.

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has been stepping up its aid efforts for Iraqi families in Mosul including those that have recently returned. The agency’s field assessments show that the returning population of Mosul needs assistance of every kind, but shelter needs remain the most pressing and dire, particularly in the west.

“Returning families also face challenges in accessing basic services and utilities – accessing water, electricity or fuel in parts of Mosul can be difficult and very expensive,” UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic told a media briefing in Geneva on Friday (August 11).

Since the end of military operations in west Mosul, UNHCR and its partners have distributed shelter kits to more than 3,241 families in the east and west of the city.

Mahecic said the package includes sealing-off kits, which allow families like Um Ahmed’s to carry out basic repairs so they are able to live in partially damaged or unfinished buildings. The plan is to distribute kits to up to 36,000 families by the end of this year.

UNHCR has also been providing multipurpose cash assistance to some of the most vulnerable displaced Iraqi families. Families receive one-off cash assistance of US$400 (486,000 Iraqi Dinars) using a system of mobile money transfers. Some of the most vulnerable families will receive the same amount for up to three months, helping them to pay rent and manage basic necessities such as food and utilities.

While life is slowly returning to the ancient city, Um Ahmed and Shehab know it will take many years before things return to normal. “The future is in the hands of Allah, but we should never lose hope,” he says. The strain of the past several years is written in the lines on his face. “It’s not the years that have made us old, it’s the things we’ve seen.”

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http://www.unhcr.org/598d69314.htmlSeeking alternatives for Niger's people smugglersNiger is cracking down on smugglers, although those caught up in transporting people across the Sahara need real economic alternatives.

AGADEZ, Niger – Bashir grew up in this maze-like outpost perched on the edge of the Sahara, and his knowledge of city and desert made him a successful human smuggler taking people over the searing border to Libya for years.

“People seek me out,” he says. “I’m the guarantor of their safety because they’ve come to me.”

Before 2012, when strongman Muammar Gaddafi still ruled Libya, he said his clients were focused mainly on going to Niger’s northern neighbour to work – not travelling onward.

“Libya was just fine. People could make even more money in Libya than in Italy,” Bashir said, recalling that many of his customers would phone him a few years later, once they had saved enough earnings, to arrange the return journey home.

Now, it is widespread insecurity in Libya that has increased the risks for his clients – and triggered a clampdown on the business that earned him a living for 17 years.

In 2015, largely in response to pressure from EU governments, Niger passed a law cracking down on operators helping those travellers, mainly from West and Central Africa, cross into Libya.

In return, the EU has offered more than €2 billion in aid to help the region – also including other priority African countries – on issues ranging from security to economic development.

Faced with the new law, which punishes people who facilitate the illegal crossing into Libya, Bashir traded in his illicit occupation last October for a new life. Now he helps smugglers like himself to prepare for a career change.

He and colleagues have helped hundreds of them to put together proposals seeking promised EU funds which are earmarked for financing business ventures and skills training for those in the smuggling trade. The initiative funds projects of up to US$2,700 for individuals, or US$7,200 for up to four individuals working as a group.

“We’re a bit hopeful because the Niger government came to us. They brought us in, and have discussed this directly with us. We’ve told them all our problems,” he said.

For centuries a hub in an international trade in gold and salt, and later a site for desert tourism, Agadez has more recently become a centre for smuggling and trafficking in guns, drugs and – above all – desperate refugees and migrants.

But the crackdown on human smuggling comes at a cost for the whole country, which ranks 187th out of 188 spots on the UNDP Human Development Index. With a vast swathe of territory to control and a desperately poor population, it has a difficult job both playing gatekeeper and finding an economic alternative for a boom industry.

"We’ve lost our work. We’ve lost our lives – because this was our life. This is what put bread on the table.”

Bashir warns that smugglers need a real solution to abandon the economy that has provided them with a lifeline. “We don’t know how to do anything else,” he said. “Can’t you see? We’ve lost our work. We’ve lost our lives – because this was our life. This is what put bread on the table.”

In Niger, where 46 per cent of people survive on less than US$2 a day, a driver who transports people to Libya can make US$4,000, even US$5,000 per trip. But now, to stay on the side of the law, many who have lived off the economy are being forced to find new ways to survive.

But not everyone. Though it has been forced underground by the law, signs of the smuggling business are easy to see in Agadez. The city bustles on days before convoys of trucks head into the desert as smugglers stock up on fuel and provisions. Money changers, wire transfer services, mobile phone dealers – selling satellite phones for coverage in the remote desert – dot city streets.

The bus station in town teems with passengers arriving in the evening with scheduled appointments with their smuggler agents. And, in Agadez’s more dangerous quarters, behind the low mud walls of some well-guarded compounds, the migrants and refugees wait for their time to travel – sometimes trapped inside under lock and key for days.

Aklou Sidi Sidi, the first vice president of Agadez’s regional council, said that during boom times up to 700 vehicles, with up to 30 people packed into each, would ride into the desert each week, generating revenues for the main transport agent, the driver – and others.

“But I haven’t even mentioned the owners of the hidden compounds, I haven’t mentioned the motorcycle taxis, or the people who exchange currency, or the money wire transfer services,” he added.

“There are those who sell kits for the migrants. All of these people live by this activity. And today this activity has stopped because it has become illegal. So there absolutely must be a replacement solution.”

Sidi Sidi acknowledges the international assistance, but says it falls short. He claims EU aid offered for job retraining and kick-start businesses can cover only about 200 people while, he says, more than 6,000 people are involved in the human smuggling trade in the city.

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http://www.unhcr.org/59882a2a4.htmlRefugees compete at World Athletics ChampionshipsFive refugee athletes are racing in London, including two who made history at the Rio 2016 Games as part of the Refugee Olympic Team.

LONDON – A year after the Refugee Olympic Team made history at Rio 2016, five refugee athletes are representing millions of refugees worldwide, this time at the World Athletics Championships in London.

Two of the five refugee athletes competing in London this month were among the squad who made history in Rio as the first refugee team to compete in the Olympic Games.

Anjelina Lohalith, who was at Rio, ran in her 1,500-metres heat on the opening night of the London games. Her disappointment at not getting through to the next round aside, Anjelina says participation alone will push her to continue.

“I shall not give up no matter what. I want to continue training more and I believe I will be like them [other athletes],” she said, after running in the event.

Some members of the Athlete Refugee Team have been training for three years, while others had just a few months of training. Displaced from their homes at an early age, they have the opportunity of a better future away from conflict zones and refugee camps.

“I compete on behalf of all the refugees around the world.”

Anjelina’s teammate, Ahmed Bashir Farah, who has never competed on the world stage, ran in the 800-metre heats. Despite only joining the team in March, Ahmed managed to keep pace with the other athletes. He did not make it through to the next round, but he hopes it will be the first of many appearances for him in international competitions.

The five athletes live and train alongside other trainee refugee athletes in Kenya, in facilities and residence funded by the Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation and supported by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.

Dominic Lobalu, Rose Lokonyen (who ran in the 800 metres in Rio) and Kadar Omar make up the rest of Athlete Refugee Team and will take to the track in London this week.

While they are focused on advancing through the competition, the athletes also know that they are not just competing for themselves.

“I compete on behalf of all the refugees around the world,” said Anjelina after her race. “So many people behind me, watching me competing, and I give them a lot of hope.”